Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Steel reinforcement-bar futures
dropped from the highest level in five months on speculation
that growth in demand for the construction raw material will
slow as China maintains curbs on the property market.

Rebar for delivery in May closed at 3,818 yuan ($613) a
metric ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange after falling as
much as 0.7 percent from yesterday’s close of 3,819 yuan.
Futures have dropped 9.3 percent this year.

China will stick to its real-estate curbs, Liao Yonglin, an
official from the Ministry of Land and Resources, said yesterday.
In its more than two-year effort to rein in prices, China raised
down-payment and mortgage requirements, imposed a property tax
for the first time in Shanghai and Chongqing, and placed home-purchase restrictions in about 40 cities.

“The level of construction activity in the housing market
is rather lackluster,” Long Qingqing, analyst at Huatai Great
Wall Futures Co., said by phone from Shanghai.

The country’s new property starts fell 7.2 percent in the
first 11 months from last year to 1.62 billion square meters
(17.4 billion square feet), according to statistics bureau data.

The average spot price of rebar rose 0.3 percent to 3,633
yuan a ton today, according to Beijing Antaike Information
Development Co. Spot iron ore at Tianjin port was unchanged at
$132.20 a dry ton yesterday, according to a gauge compiled by
The Steel Index Ltd.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story:
William Bi in Beijing at
wbi@bloomberg.net